In providing means for identification of missing persons, photographs, fingerprints and dental chartings are commonly used. However, in the identification of a human body in which substantial decomposition has occurred, the use of fingerprints is often not possible, and in such cases dental chartings, if available, are often used.
Forensic odontology, the branch of dentistry which is concerned with identification of corpses by dental and oral characteristics, often plays a major role in the identification of missing persons and victims of crime and accidents.
However, if the victim has no dental record, identification by such means is obviously impossible. This is often the case with young children that are missing. A very large percentage of children of pre-school age have never visited a dentist, and a large percentage of those who have visited a dentist merely have an examination for tooth decay or other dental purposes. This record is seldom specific enough to serve as identifying means. Unless some restorative, preventive, or orthodontic treatment has been done that would provide a basis for identification, their dental chartings will have no distinguishable characteristics that might not be shared by many other individuals. No two individuals have the same dental bite characteristics.
In view of the fluoridation of public water supplies, which has reduced the amount of tooth decay in children, it is likely that in the future, even a lower percentage of children will have dental chartings that could be used for identification.
This is a serious problem, since according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children close to one million children are reported each year. Over 100,000 attempted abductions by non-family members are reported each year. Of these, 3,000 are successful, some children are returned alive, many are not, and some are never found.
Although bite impressions of wax or other material are often made of a persons teeth, such impressions are used for indicating the location of the upper and lower teeth in relation to each other. Since they usually provide a record only of the occlusal surfaces of the teeth, and no information about the other tooth surfaces, such impressions generally do not give sufficient information for accurate identification. Also, they do not efficiently capture saliva for DNA and scent tracking. Wax bite impression wafers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,640.